Pilot

The Swamp's Korean houseboy, Ho-Jon, is accepted to attend school at Hawkeye's alma mater. The camp raises money to send Ho-Jon to Maine by raffling a weekend in Tokyo with a nurse, much to the chagrin of Hot Lips and Burns.

Storyline

Dateline: Korea, 1950 and the 4077 Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (M*A*S*H) and their personnel are located 3 miles from the front and the fighting. In "The Swamp," the tent shared by a few of the physicians, Maj. Frank Burns, Capt. Hawkeye Pierce, Capt. Oliver "Spearchucker" Jones and Capt. Trapper John McIntyre, Hawkeye and Trapper plot to raffle off a nurse for a good cause: to send their houseboy, Ho-Jon, to medical school in the States. Lt. Colonel Henry Blake, their commanding officer, tosses a temporary spanner into their plans and places the square Maj. Burns (and his sidekick, Maj. Margaret "Hotlips" Houlihan) in charge of the 4077. Hawkeye and Trapper are determined to have their hellacious fundraiser, but they know, to succeed, it will require a real shot in the arm...or somewhere in the anatomy. Written by
LA-Lawyer

Company Credits

Production Co:

Technical Specs

Runtime:

Sound Mix:

Color:

Aspect Ratio:

Did You Know?

Trivia

In the final scene of the prologue, Radar catches the football thrown by Spearchucker and yells, "Here they come!" Spearchucker says, "I don't hear nothin'," to which Radar says, "Wait for it!" He then puts the football under his left arm and looks skyward. The "Suicide is Painless" song begins and we see Radar's familiar back and cap (and football) that is used in subsequent episodes for the opening sequence. See more »

Goofs

Hawkeye says that Ho John can live with his parents while going to his alma mater. Later in the series, his mother had died when he was a boy. See more »

Crazy Credits

At the end of the episode, a PA announcement is made similar to that at the end of MASH (1970), over the instrumental for "Suicide is Painless" the announcer (Jamie Farr) states: "Attention, attention! The following personnel are assigned to the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital. Alan Alda, Wayne Rogers, McLean Stevenson, Loretta Swit, G. Wood, Larry Linville, Gary Burghoff, Karen Philipp, George Morgan, Patrick Adiarte, Timothy Brown, Odessa Cleveland." See more »

Frequently Asked Questions

User Reviews

The first episode or in this case the pilot aired on September 17 1972. The show opens with Trapper and Hawkeye (and Ho-Jon) are playing golf on a plateau, only to hit a ball into a minefield. Col. Blake and Nurse "Dish" are working feverishly on something, only to learn later that they were opening a bottle of Champagne. Father Mulcahy is swatting a fly while crossing himself at the same time. Hot Lips and Frank are reading the bible while playing Tootsie with each other; and Radar and Spearchucker are tossing a football. In the final scene of the prologue, Radar catches the football thrown by Spearchucker and yells, "Here they come!" Spearchucker says, "I don't hear nothing'," to which Radar says, "Wait for it!" He then puts the football under his left arm and looks skyward. The "Suicide is Painless" song begins and we see Radar's familiar back and cap (and football) that is used in subsequent episodes for the opening sequence. After surgery, Hawkeye is standing outside when Major Burns and Hot Lips start giving him and Trapper hard time. They go into the swamp where there given mail from Radar. Hawkeye tells Ho Jon that he has been accepted by his graduating school and all they have to do is come up with $2000.00 dollars to send him to school. Hawkeye and Trapper decide to throw a party with the with a raffle and the winner gets two days in Tokyo with the gorgeous LT Dish. Now some facts on some of the character of "Hot lips Houlihan" was inspired by the real-life Korean War MASH head nurse "Hot lips Hammerly," also a very attractive blonde-haired person, of the same disposition, and from El Paso, Texas. Wayne Rogers was originally considered for the Hawkeye role; finding the character too sardonic for his tastes, he asked if he could instead test as Trapper John, who was more upbeat. In the original pilot episode, the song playing at the beginning (My Blue Heaven) is the same one that is played frequently on an Armed Forces Radio broadcast in _M*A*S*H (1970)_ .For this episode only, the show does not begin with the "Suicide is Painless" theme song. Rather, the individuals are introduced in using the following comedic sequence. Before the theme song in this episode, the words "KOREA, 1950, a hundred years ago" appear on screen. He introductory theme song in this episode is about twice as long as in the version shown in syndication for all other episodes. Other changes to this sequence include: "Attention all personnel, report immediately to admitting ward and operating room" being announced over the PA, a man running from the shower stall, a man following a woman out of a bunk marked "Off Limits to Male Personnel", and Hawkeye shouting "This guy's got a rapid pulse, he's in shock, get him down, we're going to work on him first thing. Let's go!" during the landing pad triage. I give the episode 10 weasel stars because of Lt Dish.

5 of 8 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful to you?